Each year, UC Irvine Libraries award four UC Irvine undergraduate students with the Nellie Ansley Reeves Awards for their outstanding senior theses. Presented at the annual Campuswide Honors Collegium Banquet, the awards are accompanied by a $250 prize. 

The Nellie Ansley Reeves Award Endowment was established by Nellie Ansley Reeves, a generous supporter and friend of the Libraries until her passing in 2000. For 25 years, the endowment has funded prizes to UC Irvine students to honor Reeves’ wish to involve students in scholarly research and writing.

The four 2025 awards include theses in the areas of Earth system science, cognitive science, history, and neurobiology:

• "Demystifying the Tropics: FTIR Characterization of Pantropical Woods and Their α-Cellulose Extracts for Past Atmospheric ¹⁴C Reconstructions," by June Griffin, tested the success of chemical treatments in α-cellulose extraction procedures of pantropical trees sampled from South America and Africa. Using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, the research supported the hypothesis that a simpler chemical treatment can be effective in preparing α-cellulose samples for ¹⁴C dating and, as a result, can bolster global atmospheric ¹⁴C applications in the tropics. 
• "The Language of Political Violence and Impunity: News Media Framing of Israel and Palestine," by Danielle Shariff, leveraged natural language processing (NLP) to analyze and compare the media bias between western and Middle Eastern news coverage on Israel and Palestine. The results of Shariff’s research indicate pervasive framing issues and selectivity bias in western media, whereas Middle Eastern media tended to be more critical and employed passive voice less frequently. Shariff’s research could have benefits in the efforts aiming to uphold the viability of international human rights laws and to keep state actors accountable for human rights violations.
• “Comer De Aquí, Cocinar de Allá: Mexican Food and Racial Boundaries in Twentieth-Century Southern California," by Sebastián Calderón, examined the formation of culinary racial boundaries between Anglo-Americans and the Mexican community. Through the use of food literature such as reviews, cookbooks, menus, and restaurant guides, Calderón’s research contributes to the understanding of how racial codification of food evolved and has influenced the asymmetrical racial hierarchies present in 20th-century Southern California.
• "Delineating the Relationship Between Plasma Biomarkers and Brain Amyloid Pathology in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease," by Rushika Weerackoon, investigated plasma biomarkers as an accessible alternative to costly and invasive traditional diagnostic methods for Alzheimer's disease. Using linear regression analysis and the creation of a machine learning model, the research potentiates plasma biomarkers as a reliable means to estimate one’s brain amyloid levels and the preliminary risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Research Librarian for Biological Sciences Angelissa Panganiban, who is the liaison to the Campuswide Honors Collegium, noted the breadth of topics and disciplines covered by this year’s undergraduate theses.

“Our evaluation committee was extremely impressed with the high quality of UC Irvine student research and writing,” she said.

Photo caption: From left to right, Danielle Shariff, June Griffin, Head of Reference and Grunigen Medical Library Cynthia Johnson, Angelissa Panganiban, and Rushika Weerackoon (Sebastián Calderón not shown)